THUNDER BAY — As of Jan. 1, the city’s free holiday parking has ended and parking enforcement is out in full force once again.
However, Jim Comuzzi, owner of Rooster Bistro, said the free holiday parking was “definitely a bonus.”
He told Newswatch he saw a change in the downtown as motorists could park freely and shop locally over the holiday season.
“I think a lot of people were very impressed by the fact that we did it for a longer period this time than we did any other previous years,” Comuzzi said.
McKeller Ward Coun. Brian Hamilton, owner of Algoma Street cafe Bean Fiend, said the holiday parking policy is a welcome addition to the city’s bylaw.
“I'm glad to see it, certainly as a business owner, we appreciate every little bit of help that we can get. These aren't great days for small business in general, so any additional support that we can get to invite people into the neighbourhoods is always going to be a good thing for us,” Hamilton said.
Last month, Hamilton spearheaded changes to the parking bylaw which saw the city reduce the hours of enforcement for metered parking by several hours.
Metered parking is now only enforced Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“I think that we've changed some things with the parking as far as timelines and hours go, which in retrospect has been a great change back to the way it was, but still is increasing the parking," Comuzzi said.
“I always say that if you have full parking spots, you don't have a parking problem. When you don't have any spots taken that's where you have the problem. So, anything we can do to generate more traffic into our downtown area is what we try and do. I think it was very positive."
When asked as a business owner, if he had seen an uptake in sales over the last couple of weeks, Hamilton said it was “difficult to say.”
“A lot of businesses like mine have a hybrid parking system where you have the on-street, but we also have our own customer parking, so it is tough to say. I can say overall support for the downtowns isn't what it used to be,” Hamilton said.
“I used to have a retail store, so come Christmas time we extended our hours to December 1st. We're really not seeing the activity that we used to see here right up until like almost a week before Christmas. Sales generally, I think, are probably down in the downtowns. I mean shopping local has never been more important if we want to see really good vital downtowns."
